[pianotech] Spontaneous String Breakage

[Ron Nossaman]

> Duaine,
> I'm having trouble imagining how the dampers leaving the surface of the 
> string with the pedal could contribute to string breakage. Isn't the 
> damper off the string anyway when the hammer impacts ?
> Any explanation of this theory appreciated,
> Tom Driscoll

Tom,
It's not the lifting of the dampers that does it, it's riding 
the pedal and not allowing them to damp that's the problem. 
It's a timing thing, When a string is being hit OFTEN and 
HARD, and isn't damped between blows, the hammer will hit the 
string that's already at the top of it's excursion, and over 
stress it for the 214,000th time. This is particularly common 
in small churches with big names
Ron N